Drawfind.com is a web application for drawings. Drawings can be stored, shared, replayed, and organized into lists. Moreover, Drawfind can be used to find ideas: images can be composed by randomly picking drawings from lists.

How to create an account
How to draw on the web
How to playback a drawing
How to share a drawing
How to create a list
How to add drawings to a list
How to find ideas through random stimulation

How to create an account

Creating an account at Drawfind.com is free. The advantages of an account are

1. Sharing of drawings is more convenient
2. Drawings can be stored
3. Drawings can be arranged into lists (necessary for create random compositions)
4. Users can vote on other drawings

To create an account, click on "Sign Up" at the bottom of the homepage of DrawFind. Fill in your first and last name, email address, a username of your choice, and a password of your choice. The username is not case sensitive and may only contain alpha-numeric characters. The password is case sensitive and must be at least 6 characters long. After completing the form, click on "Sign Up".

All accounts have to be activated: after you sign-up, you will receive a welcome email with a link to activate your account. Clicking this link will automatically activate your account. In your browser, you should see a message indicating the successful activation.

A successful sign-up will bring you automatically to your personal drawings page. Later, this page will show all your drawings.

How to draw on the web

On the homepage of Drawfind.com, click on "Draw on the internet" or on the picture on top. The following page shows a drawing canvas in your browser window. To see the canvas, you need to have the Flash player installed (minimum version 9). Flash is very common these days and used also by YouTube, for example.

Within the canvas, you can draw with your mouse. To a draw a curve, you press down the left mouse button while moving the mouse. The tool bar on the bottom of the canvas allows choosing pen color and size, provides an eraser and the option to clear the whole canvas again (see the legend on the right side of the canvas). Drawings errors can be reversed using the undo button.

To save your drawing, click on the green "Save" button below the drawing canvas. If you have not signed in, you are now asked to sign in (if you have no account, you may create one at this point); afterwards, the steps are the same as if you would have already signed in. On the following page, you provide image title, description, and tags and then press "Save" again. After pressing "Save", you are landing on your list of drawings, your "My drawings" page. On this page you can change at any time the image title, description, and tags by clicking "Edit" next to the desired drawing. Furthermore, on this page, you can decide to make drawings public or private.

How to playback a drawing

For each drawing on drawfind, you can watch a replay of the drawing process. For a drawing that you are creating, press the green play button on the bottom left of the canvas. For all other drawings, go a drawing\'s webpage (you get there by clicking on a drawing) and press the play button in the center of the drawing.

How to share a drawing

Share a drawing that you just created

After you draw on the "Drawing Board", you click the green "Share" button. In the following page, if you already signed in, you provide an image title (optional), image description (optional), the email addresses or Drawfind usernames of people you want to send to (in the "Send to" line), and an optional message. If you have not signed in, you also need to provide your name and email address. At this point, you may also sign in (see top right corner of the webpage). After you sign in, you are automatically brought back to the share-drawing form. After you complete the form, click on "Share" and your picture will be sent to the provided email addresses. A confirmation page will show the addresses Drawfind could send to.

Share an existing drawing

To share any other drawing, on a drawing\'s webpage (you get there by clicking on a drawing) below the drawing, click on "Share this drawing". Afterwards, you are brought to the share-drawing form as above. Different from above, you do not provide image title and description. A third option to share is to go to your "My drawings" page: click on the "Share" button next to the drawing that you want to share.

How to create a list

To create a list follow these steps

1. First, sign in or create an account.
2. Click on "My lists" in the top right navigation bar.
3. Write a list name into the field "New list name" and then click create.

How to add drawings to a list

Before adding drawings to a list, you need to have signed in and created at least one list. To add a drawing, follow these steps

1. Go to the main page of the drawing that you want to add (e.g., by clicking on the image of the drawing).
2. Below the drawing, click on "Add this drawing to a list"
3. Choose a list and then click "Add drawing". Afterwards, you are brought to your "My drawings" page.

How to find ideas through random stimulation

In Drawfind, you can arrange drawings randomly such that they result in a larger composite image. This feature can be used for random stimulation to help finding new ideas. You need to have an account to use this feature. Moreover, you need to have created lists and filled them with drawings. To create random compositions,

1. Click on "Random composition" in the top right navigation bar.
2. Choose an arrangement for putting together the single drawings: click on the desired arrangement.
3. Each arrangement shows different image regions. For each region (numbered 1 to 4), choose a drawing list. Thus, the drawing for this region will be selected randomly from the corresponding list.
4. To display the composite, click on "Create image".
5. You can create more images for the same setting by clicking on "Create new image".